VOL. XVIII, No. ii
MAGkAllNTI
QUEER METHODS OF TRAVEL IN CURIOUS
CORNERS OF THE WORLD
BY HON. O. P. AUSTIN
CHIEF U. S. BUREAU OF STATISTICS
NO feature of tropical or oriental
life more impresses the traveler
from the temperate zone occi
dent than the methods of travel and
transportation which greet him at every
hand. Whether it be upon the mountains
or tablelands of Mexico and Central
America, the cordilleras or plateaus of
South America, the islands of the Carib
bean, the deserts or jungles of Africa, the
sandy wastes of Arabia and the Holy
Land, the densely populated plains of
India, the mountain passes of Tibet, the
jungles of Siam, the islands and water
courses of the Philippines, the crowded
cities and highways of China, the rugged
hills and narrow valleys of Korea, or the
coastal cities and mountainous interior of
Japan, the methods by which man travels
and man's requirements are transported
are ever strange, ever changing, ever
fascinating. To the man or woman who
has been accustomed to travel by the
comfortable methods of our own country
a marked contrast is found in the burro
of Mexico, the llama of South America,
the sledges of Madeira, the saddle ox of
Central Africa, the camel of the desert,
the donkey of North Africa and Arabia,
the bullock cart and the "dandy" of India,
the yak of Tibet, the trotting ox of Cey
lon, the elephant of Siam, the carabao of
the Philippines, the wheelbarrow and
sedan chair of China, the pack bull and
palanquin of Korea, and the jinricksha
and kago of Japan. From the moment
the traveler leaves the temperate zone
countries of the occident and plunges into
the tropics of the orient he finds as a
poor substitute for that noble animal, the
horse, the donkey, the llama, the camel,
the elephant, the ox, the carabao, and,
finally, man, in those densely populated
sections where labor is cheap and land
cannot be spared to support animals for
transportation.
Of the 1oo million horses known to ex
ist in the world, 8o millions, or four-fifths
of the entire number, are found in the
temperate zone and nearly all among
occidental people, while the remaining 20
millions, scattered through the tropics,
are largely employed in the service of
temperate-zone visitors or residents, and
are but feeble representatives of that ani
mal as he is known to the people of Eu
rope or America.
In the United States and Canada we
* Notes from an address to the National Geographic Society, 1907
NOVEMBER, 1907
WASHINGTON